, Columnist
Gorsuch's Rejection of a Politicized Executive Branch
When the Trump administration is challenged for crossing legal lines, how will the new justice vote?
The ninth vote.
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As Justice Neil Gorsuch starts his first full term on the Supreme Court, many people are cheering what they see as his conservatism, and many others are mourning it. But an investigation of his opinions as an appeals court judge offers a more complicated picture about his beliefs and his approach to the law.
First, Gorsuch is fiercely protective of the independence of the judiciary -- and, in important respects, he is skeptical about executive power. Second, he is a bold thinker, willing to go in novel directions. Third, he is a fine writer.